Although the new twists on familiar games helped the PlayStation Vita shine at E3, it was the original projects that carried it. The titles that tended to attract my attention were the ones that used the handhelds new inputs in… Continue Reading →

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Although the new twists on familiar games helped the PlayStation Vita shine at E3, it was the original projects that carried it. The titles that tended to attract my attention were the ones that used the handhelds new inputs in novel ways or had a different vibe from the rest of the offerings out there. Sure Uncharted: Golden Abyss garnered much of the attention as the flagship title for the system, here are three other Vita games that you should look out for as well.
LITTLE DEVIANTS
Think of this as the Wii Sports of the system. Developed by BigBug Studios, Little Deviants is a collection of minigames that leverages the handheld's inputs and hardware and creates fresh gameplay experiences. The simplest game can be one where players have to guide a Deviant through caves by tilting the Vita so that it descends and drifts left and right. It works really well compared to similar titles that use the mechanic.
Little Deviants also offers something more complex such as an augmented reality shooter that lets players move around the real world dodging enemies and firing shots at them. (For all intents and purposes, this is Sony's version of Face Raiders on the Nintendo 3DS.) As for the plot, the goal of Little Deviants is to rescue these creatures that have crash landed from space. Over the course of several minigames and levels, players will have to fend off robots intent on killing them.
Sure it's not Shakespeare, but the gameplay more than does its share of selling the system. By far, the most intriguing minigame is one where players use the back touchscreen to deform the environment. Like pressing your finger on a piece of fabric, the gesture will alter a flat landscape so that a deviant in a sphere can escape into a vortex. It doesn't sound like much, but it's surprisingly fun and shows some of the more unconventional gameplay features available on the system.
SOUND SHAPES (working title)
Don't let the simple graphics fool you. This was one of the best titles I played on the Vita at E3. It takes the classic side-scroller and adds musical element to it. Each panel of a stage has its own track with obstacles set to the beat of the music and as players move a ball with the thumbstick, they'll collect white coins and interact with objects, adding their own samples to the overlying song. If the gameplay technique sounds familiar, it should be. Sound Shapes is being developed by Queasy Games, the same team that did Everyday Shooter.
As for the actual platforming element, the ball players control can contract and roll down a hill swiftly or it can spread out and stick to surfaces. Players will have to use both abilities to navigate levels and go from Point A to Point B.
But the most intriguing part of Sound Shapes though is that players can create their own levels. It works into PlayStation's Play, Create, Share ethos. Players can compose their own levels or remix an old one. The level design seems to dictate the music for each stage. Although designers will create the base tune, it's always up to the player to determine how the level plays out. In a way, it's a collaborative effort between the designer and player to make music between them. It's an idea I want to see fleshed out on the system.
GRAVITY (working title)
This looks like the most conventional title out of the lot, but this project by Sony's Japan Studio offers a unique take on puzzle solving and adventuring. Players take on the role of a woman named Kat. She appears normal, but when she gets in contact with a strange feline, she suddenly has the power to manipulate gravity. (She also has an interesting costume change.) The walls become the floor, up becomes down, etc. It's a little disorienting at first.
She uses these powers to navigate the world and go from one area to another. To do that, players have to use motion-controls on the PS Vita to look around the zone she's in and press the Right Trigger to manipulate gravity in that direction. (Don't worry she can't fall into the sky.) That means anything can be a platform: signs, the side of buildings, the underside of bridges. It's not exactly flying. It's more like pointing to the surface you want to land on and hitting a button to get there.
But the mechanic is more complex than just pointing and clicking. During your decent to your destination, players can interrupt Kat's movement and change the trajectory in midair. It's these twists and the layering of controls that will make or break the game when it's released on the Vita.
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